Kind of a strange question here. I live in New York. I recently traded in a car to my dealer. I now have a credit with the dealer for the full amount of the car (I pay cash). I have another car on order.
Typically, I would only pay sales tax on the net difference between the trade-in and the new car. However, it appears as if it will be very close as to whether or not the new car gets delivered to me before the end of calendar year, 2023. The dealer has said that if the full trade does not take place within the same calendar year, that I lose the tax benefit.
Is this true? And if it is true, is there a workaround?
Probably some kind of agreement has to be in place if there is positive equity or if the vehicle is owned outright, it would seem odd for a dealer to keep someones equity on their books for any period of time, but yeah, I’ve seen it done more than a handful of times.
I do a few of these a year on sports cars. The tax credit is good for 9 months in IL. The customer can technically not take the new car, but then they could lose their tax credit if they don’t buy a car from our dealer in that 9-month period.
See if they can paper the deal before the car arrives. If the car has a VIN, you might be able to “purchase” it before it arrives at the dealer. Just depends on if the dealer is willing to do that and how much the OEM cares.
